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FS: Navy Arms 1853 3-Band Enfield Musket

Made back in the 70's and early 80's in Italy, this Enfield is in superb shape. Barrel is stamped "Navy Arms, Ridgefield, Conn." 58 1/2 Drams Black Powder." Barrel, stock and lock in near perfect shape. This is a solid live-shooter and great smoke-pole as well. Asking $700. This isn't the cheap stuff made today-this was made back when stampings and tooling was crisp. Lock marked "ENFIELD" with a Crown at the tail.

Jim:
Are you sure this is not a Parker Hale? Navy Arms imported those from the mid-70s on, too. It could be of course, one of the first Armi San Paolo P53s (now called Euroarms) which were virtual clones of the Parker Hales except in minor detail and weight. The "58 1/2 drams" stamping suggests Armi San Paolo, SrL as the maker. The barrels on those first ones had six groove rifling. The pictures are not clear but it looks like Italian proof marks, not Birmingham. You can tell the year of manufacture (if Italian) or at least year of proof from the Gardonne VT (Valtrompia) proof house marks on the barrel. Opposite the bolster, will be two capital letters AA, AB, AC, AD, etc. inside a square; AA = 1976…. AZ 1990 (not all letters are used), BA 1991, BB 1992, BC 1993, BD 1994 BF 1995 BH 1996 BI 1997 BL 1998 BM 1999 BN 2000 BP 2001 BS 2002 BT 2003 BU 2004 BZ 2005, CA 2006, CB 2007 and so on. and so on. 1976 was the first year of Italian manufacture by ASP. The factory sold direct to Navy Arms, in addition to Dixie Gun Works and Euroarms of America and may have changed the markings for Navy Arms...ie: ENFIELD on the lock plate is how the P-Hs were marked, and the ASPs made for Euroarms were marked "LA Co 1862", then London Armoury and finally London Armory (no u).

I have a very early Armi San Paolo P53, serial number 0006 (from 1976) that I still use. It is almost identical to my son's British made Parker Hale P53, until you pick it up. The Italian gun is about 1.5 lbs heavier. The quality on those first Italian P53s is much, much better than what it is currently produced in Italy by either Euroarms or Armi-Sport now. Parker Hale stopped making muzzleloaders in Birmingham after 1990 and sold the naming rights to Navy Arms, who had them made in Italy. The Italian made Parker Hales are essentially just a P-H barrel in a Euroarms stock, and these Italian Parker Hale P53s are no longer imported to America (since 2005).

Enfield Markings

Hey there Craig,
Good to hear from you again. I have letters opposite the bolster of AF and the serial number is 3263. I think therefore this is an Italian import from way back. Does that sound correct to you?

So it sounds like an old Armi San Paolo (Euroarms) P53 repro made in 1981, and those were extremely well made and serviceable. Brass bands or blued steel? Mine has brass bands painted black. They changed that pretty fast, so these are probably steel bands if it dates from 1981. Somebody will ge getting a pretty nice piece to defarb here. The better the Enfield is to start with the better the end results will be.

Enfield

These bands are blued steel and in great shape- tight and no turnscrew slips and scuffs. Hopefully someone will give this a good home. I understood that Enfields meant for foreign markets didn't get the VR stamping under the crown? I could be wrong but foreign market rifles just got the cypher alone.

V-R and TOWER

V-R is the royal cypher, for Queen Victoria (Victoria Regina in Latin). The British often marked their weapons based on the ruling monarch: E-R for Edward, G-R for George III, etc. It has no other meaning. The commercial gunmakers varied on the practice. V-R is often found on Brit Army P53s but also found on every LA Co P53 I know of regardless of whether it was sold to the US, CS, South Africa, the Volunteers or the Ordnance Dept.

"TOWER" meant (or was supposed to mean) that the weapon had been inspected w/ gauges by government employees at "the Tower" in London. There was also a place called "the Tower" on Bagot Street in Birmingham that employed 80 men full time inspecting commercial P53s made on government contract for the Ordnance Dept. Many US and CS Civil War-era P53s are marked TOWER, but they were not inspected by the British government. It was a way for commercial gunmakers to fob off a handmade grade II P53 as grade I, parts interchangeable. In other words, charge more for it.